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Velvet?

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2.7K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  JessLynne7  
#1 ·
I filled out form below. I have one beta and one bristlenose pleco. About week and half ago pleco had bright red mouth and fins and beta had white saddle back appear. Started erythromycin for 6 days. This helped redness in plecos mouth and body go away but her fins are red and falling off. Beta still had white saddle back and yesterday a gold flake appeared as well as damaged looking scales. She also has red stress marks. Started kanaplex Friday View attachment 1040908 View attachment 1040908 View attachment 1040909

Housing:
How many gallons is your tank? 10
Does it have a filter? Tidal 35
Does it have a heater? Yes
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Yes air stone
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? 1 bristlenose pleco - who is also sick has red streaks in her fins and mouth. Doses with erythromycin and redness in mouth went away and still red in fins which are now falling off.

Food:
What food brand do you use? Fluval big bites flakes and tetra pellets and treats blood worms
Do you feed flakes or pellets? Both mixed
Freeze-dried? Blood worms
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? Once a day

Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? No weekly or when needed ( before or after two week)
What percentage of water did you change? 25-5-0
What is the source of your water? Tap
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Both recently vacuumed every time and past sometime sipped out
What additives do you use other than conditioner? What brand of conditioner? Prime and before that tetra beta safe

Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water before the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia: .5
Nitrite: .0.5
Nitrate: 20 - 30
pH: 6.8-7.0
Hardness (GH): 75
Alkalinity (KH): 40

Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? Week ago but yesterday she has a gold flake and looks like scale damage.

also a mark on her head and I can’t tell if it’s damage orher colors bc she’s a dragon scale

How has your Betta’s appearance changed? White looking saddle back
Noticed shiny appearance but thought it was her colors then gold flake on fin appeared yesterday and stress red marks this morning

How has your Betta’s behavior changed? Eating and active and swims as usual
Is your Betta still eating? Yes
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Erythromycin 6 days and kanaplex one dose
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? No
How long have you owned your Betta? Little over 1 year
Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? No
 
#3 ·
Not velvet. It looks like he may have lost a few scales. You can test for velvet by shutting all the tank lights off, maybe getting into a darker room then shining a flashlight on the fish. There would be a gold/yellow powder looking thing across your betta. IMO not velvet.

Your Ammonia and nitrite is a bit high. I don’t think your tank is cycled or was cycled before you added the fish.

The tank is too small for a bristlenose pleco. You need at least a 20-25 gallon tank for a bristlenose pleco.

This could be ammonia burn and that could be the problem with your fish. For now I would at least do a 30-40 percent water change. Continue doing this every day or every second day. Until you see no nitrate and ammonia. @RussellTheShihTzu @BettaloverSara @bettamom15
 
#4 ·
Thank you for the advice. The tank was cycled and has been established for three years. Pleco has been in there for three years and Betta added a year ago. When my issues started the water parameters were reading 0 nitrites and ammonia. However once I started antibiotics the quality in the water deteriorated. Over past few days I am experiencing a cycle crash or mini cycle. I had increased feeding attempting to feed food with antibiotics and now my water is all out of sync.

I had already tried the flash light and the sheen I was seeing I believe to be just his colors however when they gold spec showed up on his fin I got worried.
I will continue change the water in an attempt to reduce ammonia and burn
 

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#5 ·
This is Velvet:

What you are seeing is nothing unusual. Part of it is natural iridescence. As long as she is eating and active there's little chance he has any issues.

How long did you wait between the last dose of one med the first of the other? If you didn't wait a week that could be the reason for the stress stripes as antibiotics are extremely hard on fish. Or they could be caused by the Ammonia and Nitrite readings if he's used to 0 ppm. I'd do a couple of 50% water changes to get the Ammonia and Nitrites to 0 ppm.

Sure is a cutie!
 
#7 ·
If you treated your fish in the main tank with Erythromicin, it killed the beneficial bacteria, which is why you are seeing a new cycle. That's the unfortunate part of antibiotics. Once you are done with the antibiotics, you'll have to recycle. Here's a link to the forums instructions on a fish-in cycle in case you need it: CYCLING: the two-sentence tutorial.